The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.
"The Big Question: Could Abortion Be a Deal-Breaker on Health Care Reform?" Mary Ann Dreas/Tony Romm, The Hill's "Congress Blog": Dreas and Romm asked eight policymakers and advocates if abortion coverage could be a "deal-breaker" in attempts to enact health reform legislation. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said that while abortion coverage is "an issue that divides people," he does not think it will be a deal-breaker because there are "a lot of pro-life members who ... feel we've done what's appropriate to ensure American people that we are using their taxpayer dollars well." Suzanne Poppema, board chair of the Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, also said the issue "shouldn't be a deal-breaker" because "women will always need abortion." She added that abortion services "should be treated like any other medical service -- not singled out for special attention." However, abortion-rights opponents Tom McClusky, senior vice president of FRC Action; John McManus, executive director of the John Birch Society; and Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, all said the issue should be a deal-breaker. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said that both abortion and immigration "are issues that are seen as potentially very decisive," while Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said he "would be seriously concerned if any bill passed the government that didn't protect the life of the unborn." Michael Wilson, executive director of Americans for Democratic Action, said abortion won't be a deal-breaker, adding that while he would like "a system that is as robust as possible with as much improvement as we can get, we know this is not the place to resolve the issue of choice" (Dreas/Romm, "Congress Blog," The Hill, 10/29).
"Does Focus on the Family Fund Abortions?" Amy Sullivan, TimeВ s В "Swampland": Antiabortion-rights groups have used a "fungibility" argument against abortion coverage under health reform, Sullivan writes. She adds that as these groups see it, if an insurer that covers abortion enters the health insurance exchange, then tax-payer supported premiums paid to the plan "help support that abortion coverage even if individual abortion procedures are paid for out of a separate pool of privately paid premium dollars." She asks, "But are those pro-life organizations holding themselves to the same strict standard?" Sullivan reports that Focus on the Family provides employees with health insurance from Principal, a company that covers abortion services. Even if the specific plan that Focus on the Family uses does not cover abortion services, its employees "still pay premiums to a company that funds abortions," Sullivan writes. She says, "If health reform proposals have a fungibility problem, then Focus does as well" (Sullivan, "Swampland," Time, 10/28).
"10 Reasons Abortion Must Be Covered," Lynn Harris, SalonВ 's "Broadsheet": "[F]or right reasons or wrong, there is a question" of why abortion services should be covered under health care reform legislation, Harris writes. Harris offers 10 reasons to include abortion coverage in health reform, including that it is "legal medical care" and that is "one of the most common surgical procedures in America." Abortion services are "already broadly covered" under private insurance plans, she continues. The abortion rate will not increase by covering the procedure, and covering abortion services "makes abortion safer" and is "what the people want," Harris writes. In addition, "[e]xcluding abortion from coverage sends us down a slippery 'moral' slope," she writes, adding that Frances Kissling recently said that federal policies based on the idea that people "should not be forced to see their premiums used to cover things they consider immoral" would bring the U.S. back to the time when individual plans for unmarried women did not include contraception or maternity coverage. In addition, while some opponents argue that abortion is an "elective" procedure, they ignore the many other procedures that are covered without the need for any moral debate or proof of medical necessity. Harris continues that "[w]ithout coverage there is no 'choice,'" adding, "Even with the best prevention measures, there will be unintended pregnancies." She concludes with a quote from Megan Carpentier, news and politics editor for Air America Radio, who said that abortion should be covered because "sometimes abortion is medically necessary, and the government shouldn't be writing regulations from Washington that tell a woman in Kansas when that is." Carpentier added that "eliminating coverage that currently exists through federal law is just another back-door way for the antiabortion movement to make it more difficult and expensive for women to get a legal medical procedure, since they can't convince women not to have abortions on the 'merits' of their arguments" (Harris, "Broadsheet," Salon, 10/28).
"Stupak Still Unhappy With Health Care Reform, Abortion Provision," Tony Romm, The HillВ s В "Blog Briefing Room": Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who is threatening to block the House health reform bill (HR 3962) unless Democrats allow a vote on an amendment that would add language further restricting abortion coverage, is not satisfied with progress on the issue, Romm writes. In a statement released Thursday, Stupak said the bill "still does not do enough to prevent federal funding from going to abortion services." He also said he is "disappointed" that the Capps amendment language is included in the bill. Romm writes, "All eyes have been on Stupak since he announced he had the support of 39 other lawmakers and would scuttle attempts to bring health care reform to the House floor unless the Democratic leadership addressed his concerns." Romm adds, "Both sides have tried to negotiate that dilemma for some time now, but they have not been able to strike a deal. It is still unclear whether a vote on Stupak's amendment will even take place" (Romm, "Blog Briefing Room," The Hill, 10/29).
"Senate Leader Blasts Holdup o[f] Obama's Nominees," Kate Phillips, New York TimesВ ' "The Caucus": On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) "slammed Republicans for slowing down, and in some cases, blocking the confirmation of nominees for various posts in the Obama administration," Phillips states. Reid noted that several top health care posts at the federal level had yet to be filled. According to the Phillips, nine HHS nominees have been confirmed and eight are awaiting confirmation. Phillips reports that the confirmations of several other "high-profile nominees ... have been stalled or waylaid," including Department of Justice nominee Dawn Johnsen, whose "nomination by our count seems to be one of the longest delayed." Johnsen is nominated for deputy attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, "which offers critical advice to the president on everything, ranging from executive authority to interrogation methods," Phillips says. However, "Republicans have long objected to the fact that she served as legal counsel for an abortion-rights organization years ago, among other duties, and have taken issue with views they find controversial," she writes (Phillips, "The Caucus," New York Times, 10/29).
"What Catholics Want in Health Care Reform: Should We Cover Some People, Some Parts of People, or All Parts of Everybody?" Jon O'Brien/Sara Morello, Washington PostВ 's "On Faith": There is a "curious divide" in the health reform debate "about what exactly health care is or what it should be" and "who and what should be left out of the final plan," according to O'Brien and Morello, Catholics for Choice's president and vice president, respectively. While these are "not unreasonable questions," the "answers that some people, who claim to speak for American Catholics, provide are not reflective of what Catholics in the United States believe," they write, noting that a poll of nearly 1,000 U.S. Catholics found that most "think providing health care to all people who need it is a matter of social justice." The poll respondents said that "their understanding of social justice includes extending health care to the whole person, not just some parts of people," including covering reproductive health services and abortion. Catholics for Choice "believe[s] that all people should have access to the health care they need," and 73% of the poll's respondents agreed and more than 60% believe contraception should be covered by insurance, O'Brien and Morello write. "We believe that abortion should be covered by insurance -- whether private or government subsidized," they continue. "Depending on the circumstances, as many as 84% agree with us, and when the question really comes down to respecting a woman's conscience in regard to her own health, a full half of Catholics polled agree that abortion should be covered whenever a woman and her doctor decide she needs it," according to O'Brien and Morello. They write that their "instinct" tells them that "Catholics are far more progressive than their bishops, ... and our poll results prove it" (O'Brien/Morello, "On Faith," Washington Post, 10/29).
"Rehearsal for an Anti-Choice Protest: 'Okay, You Stand Here and She's Gonna Whip You With This Whip,'" Amanda Terkel, ThinkProgress: Randall Terry, founder of the antiabortion-rights group Operation Rescue, recently encouraged supporters to film videos of themselves burning effigies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Terkel says. She writes that ThinkProgress spotted Terry on Capitol Hill this week with signs and costumes, conversing with congressional staffers as they entered their offices. Terry, as he was "preparing for his charade this morning," told followers, "'Okay, you stand here and she's gonna whip you with this whip,'" according to Terkel. Organizers say the protest is the first of a series that will continue until Nov. 12 (Terkel, ThinkProgress, 10/29).
"Peru's Highest Court Rules Against EC," Elizabeth Westley, Below the Waist: Peru's Constitutional Court ruled last week to block the Ministry of Health from distributing no-cost emergency contraception, Westley, coordinator of the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception, writes. The court said that the Ministry of Health failed to prove "the inexistence of the abortifacient effect, the inhibition of the implantation of the fertilized ovum in the endometrium," thus concluding that EC could cause abortion and violate Peru's Constitution. Westley writes that the ruling contradicts a growing body of literature -- including from ICEC and the World Health Organization -- "that shows delaying or preventing ovulation is the most likely and perhaps only mechanism by which EC effectively prevents pregnancy." EC can continue to be sold in Peru but only with a package insert warning that it might cause an abortion. "This Peru case is very similar to ones in Ecuador and Chile, and may represent a trend toward protecting the rights of the 'conceived' using weak science as a strategy to limit access to EC," Westley writes. "Clearly, some Latin American courts are now considering that life begins at conception and not at implantation," she adds (Westley, Below the Waist, 10/27).
"The Gender Gap, Around the World," Catherine Rampell, New York TimesВ ' "Economix": The World Economic Forum on Tuesday released its annual Global Gender Gap Report, and the U.S. "was ranked No. 31, three spots lower than it was last year," Rampell writes. The report "tries to assess how well countries 'are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities.'" Four Nordic countries -- Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden -- topped the list. The assessments are based on four components: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival. The organization says the report is intended to show the percentage of a nation's gender gap that has closed, meaning that a high score represents a society with greater gender parity (Rampell, "Economix," New York Times, 10/28).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
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